Development of an instrument-free molecular diagnostic test for Influenza and RSV

影响患者呼吸的感染，如流感和呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV），每年在全球造成600多万人住院，约70万人死亡。它们特别影响65岁以上、5岁以下和慢性疾病患者，例如COPD。迫切需要改进呼吸道疾病的诊断和治疗，包括允许在最有效的情况下使用抗病毒药物，并在不需要时减少抗生素的使用。检测病毒遗传物质的流感和RSV的实验室诊断测试非常准确，但需要复杂的设备，这需要中央测试位置和相关的操作系统，这增加了成本并导致延迟。快速床旁测试，类似于妊娠测试，可用于流感和RSV，自20世纪90年代初以来一直在美国使用。它们既便宜又方便，但错过了许多感染病例，而且不可靠。我们开发了一种一次性使用的分子检测设备，将实验室机器检测的黄金标准性能带入快速、一次性、即时检测形式。该产品具有高度灵活性，可在中心实验室之外轻松采用。我们的测试的好处包括改善患者的治疗，减少住院，更好地使用抗生素，减少死亡和显着降低整体医疗保健成本。医院、全科医生和疗养院未来的使用也将使感染预防和控制更加有效。

Infections that affect patients breathing, such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), cause over 6 million hospital admissions and c.700,000 deaths globally each year. They particularly impact over 65s, under 5s and patients with chronic disease, e.g. COPD. There is an important need to improve the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory illnesses, including permitting antiviral drugs to be used when they are most effective and cutting the use of antibiotics when they are not required. Laboratory diagnostic tests for influenza and RSV which detect the genetic material of the viruses are very accurate but need complex equipment, which necessitates a central testing location and the associated operating systems which add costs and cause delays. Rapid point-of-care tests, similar to a pregnancy test, are available for influenza and RSV and have been used in the USA since the early 1990s. They are cheap and convenient but miss many cases of infection and are unreliable. We have developed a single-use molecular test device that brings the gold standard performance of laboratory machine tests into a rapid, disposable, point-of-care test format. The product is highly flexible and may be readily adopted outside of central laboratories. The benefits of our test include improved treatment of patients, fewer hospitalisations, better use of antibiotics, fewer deaths and significantly lower overall healthcare costs. Future use by hospitals, GPs and nursing homes would also enable more effective infection prevention and control.